1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates to sugar cane harvesters and more particularly relates to an improved primary extractor apparatus for use with sugar cane harvesters and more particularly for use with chopper type sugar cane harvesters that cut cane whole stalks into short pieces or billets. Even more particularly, the present invention relates to an improved primary extractor apparatus for use with chopper type sugar cane harvesters that cut cane stalks into billets and wherein the air intake features a plurality of side mounted vertical louvers having inwardly extending louver plates that deflect cane billets and trash away from the air inlet openings, and a rear air inlet opposite the cane billet feed inlet that provides a balanced flow of air into the cleaning chamber for removal of trash and leafy material but which discourages the inadvertent removal of cane billets.
2. General Background
There are various of types of mechanized sugar cane harvesters that harvest the growing cane stalks by cutting the cane at its base, and then transferring the cut cane to a receptacle vehicle such as a cane wagon or cane cart. In the process, leafy trash material is removed from the stalks so that the trash is not carried to the mill.
Some sugar cane harvesters cut the cane stalks into short pieces or billets. In the cutting process leafy material is also cut producing a volume of leafy trash material that is carried along with the crop during harvesting.
Early harvester mechanisms were often attached to a tractor or towed. Examples of early harvesters can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 2,755,912 to Ashton entitled "Harvesting Mechanism"; U.S. Pat. No. 2,835,298 to Collins entitled "Rotary Cutting Mechanism", U.S. Pat. No. 3,141,281 to Gaunt entitled "Machines For Harvesting Tall Row Crops". In the Gaunt patent a tractor is shown with a harvesting machine attached to the side of the tractor and wherein rotating drums having knives thereon are used to cut the stalks into small pieces. The device is adapted for use with sugar cane as an example. The U.S. Pat. No. 3,377,785 to Kessler, the U.S. Pat. No. 3,397,520 to Johnston and the U.S. Pat. No. 3,422,906 to Bunting show other early types of harvesters.
A topper for use with the sugar cane harvester is the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 3,473,308 issued to Zagorski.
A base cutter, conveying rollers, and chopper drums are seen in a patent to Driller issued Dec. 9, 1969 entitled "Crop Harvester Material Distribution Apparatus", U.S. Pat. No. 3,482,690.
A sugar cane harvesting combine is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,599,404 which has a mobile chassis with a supporting framework and wheels, and adjustable cane top severing mechanisms consisting of a shielded disc with blades, and a hydraulic adjustment means with rods to direct the cane to the top cutting area, curved paddles to discharge the cane tops, and a stalk severing mechanism which oppositely rotating horizontal cutters on hydraulically controlled skids, and means directing falling cane into the stalk cutting mechanism, with a series of conveying means to dispose of the cut cane.
The U.S. Pat. No. 3,673,774 to Mizzi provides a sugar cane harvester that has cutters for removing cane tops and cutting the stalks which are conveyed to a chopper having a bladed and a slotted rotary interacting to cut the stalks into billets and deliver them to a cane cleaner of two parallel rotating drums which tear leaf from the billets and discharge them to an elevator, on which they are carried over parallel screws, alternate screws being oppositely wound and oppositely rotated, for pulling leafy matter from the billets before the billets are discharged on the elevator.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,848,399 entitled "Sugar Cane Harvesters" provides a harvester having twin contra-rotating base cutters feeding whole sticks to cane chopping apparatus which sub-divides the sticks. Each base cutter is in the form of a drum, open at one end and arranged with its open end facing downwards. Outwardly projecting blades are mounted at the open end of the drum. The blades are thereby downwardly offset from the closed end of the drum which reduces power consumption and causes less soil and sticks to be fed into the harvester with the cane sticks. The harvester has a plurality of conveying rollers and a pair of contra-rotating cane choppers that receive the cane from the rollers and chop it into billets. The contra-rotating choppers throw the billets into a primary elevator. As the billets fall into the top of the elevator onto the inlet of a secondary elevator they are subjected to an air blast from the blower to remove cane trash. The cane falls from the top end of the elevator into a trailer and is simultaneously subjected to an air current produced by a fan unit to remove any remaining trash.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,019,308 to Quick entitled "Base Cutting Apparatus For Sugar Cane Harvesters" shows a cane harvester having scrolls, base cutters, conveying rollers to convey cut cane upwardly and rearwardly through the harvester, a topper to cut the tops of cane stalks, contra-rotating drums having cutting knives thereon, and an extractor having a fan for removing trash.
Another U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,778 to Quick provides an air intake for trash removal apparatus of a cane harvester. The air intake forms the lower portion of the housing of the trash removal apparatus and also serves to guide cane billets into the hopper of a pivotally mounted billet discharge conveyer. The air intake is formed as a deflectable air permeable curtain of perforated rubber sheeting which avoids both damage to the air intake and jamming of the conveyor during use. Another version of the air intake includes hanging chains through which air can pass.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,295,325 to Canavan entitled "Sugar Cane Harvester" provides a self-propelled harvester having a base cutter for cutting cane near the ground level, a chopping cutter for cutting the stalks into billets, a feed for feeding the stalks from the base cutter to the chopping cutter and means for elevating and discharging the billets, the chopping cutter and elevating means including a rotary cutter with a knife blade on a rotating shaft and a thrower having a vein extending from the thrower shaft, the two shafts being parallel and contra-rotated, the cutter knife blade and vein co-acting to sever cane fed into the chopping cutter into billets, the thrower vein acting to throw the severed billets upwardly through a cane guide chute from which they are discharged, preferably into a bin mounted on the main frame and capable of being tilted to empty its contents.
It is known in the art to chop sugar cane into short stalks or billets and to also cut leafy trash material. Early U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,788,048 and 3,830,046 to Massey Ferguson relate to sugar cane chopper harvesters that cut the cane stalks with a base cutter and then convey the stalks rearwardly in the harvester using conveying rollers, one of the sets of conveying rollers being a set of chopping rollers in the form of two rotating drums, each having knife blades thereon. The chopping drums rotate and cut the cane stalk and its attached leafy material into pieces. Thereafter, the cane billets or pieces fall into a hopper or receptacle, and the leafy trash material is separated from the crop with an extractor or cleaning chamber. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,788,048 and 3,830,046 are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
There have been various attempts to improve the operation of sugar cane harvesters that use chopper knives including drum knife arrangements, and with trash removal. Massey Ferguson has manufactured and offered commercially a number of harvesters which include base cutters to cut the cane stalks at their lower end or base, toppers to cut leafy material off the top of each cane stalk, conveying rollers to convey cane wholestalks rearwardly in the harvester, chopper rollers in the form of rotating drums having knife blades thereon to cut the cane wholestalks into pieces, a powered extractor fan positioned in the upper portion of a cleaning chamber or housing and above a cane billet feed path, and an air outlet above the fan for directing the discharging air and leafy trash exiting the cleaning chamber.
In the Massey Ferguson Model 102 Sugar Cane Harvester, a plurality of horizontal louvers are positioned around a hollow housing interior that defines a cleaning chamber. In the Massey Ferguson model 102, there are four sets of louvers, each set of louvers comprising a plurality of horizontal, spaced apart louvers with louver plates extending outwardly of the primary extractor housing wall. The Massey Ferguson Model 102 Sugar Cane Harvester also includes a forward air intake scoop that includes a downwardly extending intake for allowing air to move inwardly into the primary extractor housing. The Massey Ferguson model 105 Sugar Cane Harvester similarly provides a combination of horizontal louvers and an air intake scoop.
The Massey Ferguson model 205 Sugar Cane Harvester provides a cane harvester having a rear air inlet in the form of a scoop for allowing air to proceed downwardly through the scoop and into the cleaning chamber. The Massey Ferguson model 305 Sugar Cane Harvester is another Massey Ferguson harvester that includes an air intake scoop for allowing air to enter the cleaning chamber.
An Australian company, Austoft (formerly known as "Toft", "Versatile Toft", "Versatile Corporation" and "Toft Brothers") has also manufactured and sold sugar cane harvesters that include a base cutter for cutting the cane stalks at the bottom, a topper for chopping the leafy material off the top of the base cutter, conveying rollers for conveying cut cane stalks rearwardly in the machine, a cutter for severing the cane stalks into a plurality of billets, an extractor fan positioned in the upper portion of a primary extractor housing and positioned above the cane billet crop stream, air intakes for allowing air to flow into the cleaning chamber, and an outlet above the extractor fan for directing the discharging of air and leafy trash material exiting the cleaning chamber.
In the Toft model 4000 and 6000 Sugar Cane Harvesters, air enters the cleaning chamber through a gap between a cylindrical cleaning chamber and an angled or conical plate structure. Austoft Models 7000 and 7700 have an air intake in the form of a gap between a cylindrical cleaning cylinder and an angled plate structure.
In the Versatile Corporation U.S. Pat. No. 4,555,896, issued to Stiff et al., there is provided a sugar cane harvester in which chopped crop is conveyed from a chopping mechanism to a cleaning mechanism. The cleaning mechanism includes an extractor fan positioned in an upper portion of a cleaning cylinder and a substantially unobstructed air intake surrounding the periphery of the cleaning cylinder. The air intake draws air in a generally downwardly direction through the air intake and into the cleaning cylinder, and upwardly through a substantial portion of the crop after the crop exits from the chopping mechanism. Debris is expelled upwardly through the extractor fan, while cleaned crop drops into an elevator for transportation away from the cleaning mechanism.
The assignee of the present application, Cameco Industries, Inc., has also sold sugar cane harvesters under the model number 1000 having an air intake gap between a cylindrical cleaning chamber and an angled or conical plate.
One of the problems of all primary extractors is to prevent a clogging of any air intake structure while at the same time providing for a removal of trash and leafy material but not the removal of the cane billets, which is to be taken to a mill for processing.
The present invention provides an improved primary extractor apparatus for separating cane crop leafy trash material from a harvested stream of conveyed cane billets wherein a plurality of spaced apart vertical louvers are positioned on each side of an extractor housing, each of the lovers including an inwardly extending louver plate that acts as a deflector to prevent trash and other extraneous material from clogging the air inlet, the louver plates also being preferably adjustable in one embodiment in order to increase or decrease the amount of air entering the cleaning chamber through the vertical louvered openings so that air flow can be adjusted based upon changes in crop conditions.